TREE WORSHIP

Tree worship

Spirit of the East, spirit of air,
of morning and springtime:
Be with us as the sun rises,
in times of beginning,
times of planting.
Inspire us with the fresh breath of courage
as we go forth into new adventures.

Spirit of the South, spirit of fire,
of noontime and summer:
Be with us through the heat of the day
and help us to be ever growing.
Warm us with strength
and energy for the work that awaits us.

Spirit of the West, spirit of water,
of evening and autumn:
Be with us as the sun sets
and help us enjoy a rich harvest.
Flow through us with a cooling,
healing quietness and bring us peace.

Spirit of the North, spirit of the earth,
of nighttime and winter,
Be with us in the darkness,
in the time of gestation.
Ground us in the wisdom of the changing seasons
as we celebrate the spiraling journey of our lives.

- To The Four Directions, by Joan Goodwin

“Tree worship and worship of natural forces evolved gradually along with the origin of human social life. In Indian culture plant worship probably had its beginning in the pre-Indus Valley time but as a continuous stream of worship from the pre-vedic period and continues more or loss uninterrupted even today as a vibrant faith in the Indian society. Excavations in Harappa and Mohanjodaro provided evidence of the existence of tree worship during the Indus Valley civilization. Marshall in his classical work on Indus civilization mentions two forms of tree worship during that period. In one form the tree is worshiped and in the other form the tree spirit is worshiped. Pandey in his work on the Indian Rock Art found in the Adamgarh mentions the figure of a ‘Vanadeva’. This figure is shown in an anthropomorphic form, a lotus crown on his head, holding an arrow in one hand and a bud in the other hand, and the body covered with flowers. In one of the seals excavated from Indus Valley, the epiphany of the deity is a tree that resembles the peepal. In another seal Mackay has identified a peepal, and in a clay amulet he found the representation of a neem tree. According to him the worship of Mother Goddess, the goddess of fertility and crops, seems to be central to the religious practices of the time. The Mother Goddess was often represented as rising between two branches of a tree or standing in between the bifurcated branch of a peepal tree. The pre-Vedic worship of trees evolved further and attained new dimensions during the Vedic period and in the subsequent post- Vedic times. The number of sacred trees increased considerably in the Puranic period and subsequent centuries because of the proliferation of the polytheistic and iconoclastic worship. However during the Vedic period soma occupied the prime status in worship than any other tree. In Rig Veda a whole chapter, the ninth Mandala is devoted for extolling the qualities of soma and its worship. In subsequent centuries elaborate rituals were evolved for each sacred ceremony and in every such ceremony plants and plant products played important roles. We read in Puranas such as Garuda purana, Agni purana etc. how different flowers were prescribed for offering to different deities.
The Indian people believed and still believe in astrology and the planetary influence on their lives. Just like gods and goddesses are associated with certain plants; myths and legends were evolved that made the nine planets associate with certain plants; so also the birth stars. All the twenty seven birth stars are associated with some plants and animals.

LET ME QUOTE A FEW LINES OF A POEM:


‘The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned
To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave,
And spread the roof above them,---ere he framed
The lofty vault, to gather and roll back
The sound of anthems; in the darkling wood,
Amidst the cool and silence, he knelt down,
And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks
And supplication……………………………..
Father, thy hand
Hath reared these venerable columns, thou
Didst weave this verdant roof. Thou didst look down
Upon the naked earth, and, forthwith, rose
All these fair ranks of trees. They, in thy sun,
Budded, and shook their green leaves in the breeze,
And shot towards heaven. The century-living crow,
Whose birth was in their tops, grew old and died
Among their branches, till, at last, they stood,
(A Forest Hymn by William Cullen Bryant)

Evolution of Worship

Evolution of worship:

Many workers tried to study the evolution of worship in human race, like Frazer, Rendell Harris, Fowler etc., and they had documented the nature and types of tree /plant worship in many primitive as well the modern societies. They have documented how among the ancient Greeks and Romans the oak, the apple the laurel, the mistelote etc. became symbols of their gods and goddesses. It was the tree worship that gradually evolved into the polytheistic form of worship. John Stewart Collis in his book The Triumph of Tree writes (and I quote):

‘Today the tree is the body, tomorrow the abode of a spirit- animism turns into polytheism. Thus we see the wild Huntsman of North America known as Heno, riding the clouds and splitting the forest trees with his thunderbolt; and then we see him later, gathering the clouds together and pouring down warm rains- as a god of agriculture. Many simple spirits developed into a general spirit of vegetation, and often enough in the primitive mind several misconceptions existed at the same time …’. Let me quote a passage from Frazer’s famous book ‘The Golden Bough’:

‘When a tree comes to be viewed, no longer as the body of the tree-spirit, but simply as its abode which it can quit at pleasure, an important advance has been made in religious thought. Animism is passing into polytheism. In other words, instead of regarding each tree as a living and conscious being, man now sees in it merely a lifeless, inert mass, tenanted for a longer or shorter time by a supernatural being who, as he can pass freely from tree to tree, thereby enjoys a certain right of possession or lordship over the trees, and, ceasing to be a tree-soul, becomes a forest god. As soon as the tree-spirit is thus in a measure disengaged from each particular tree, he begins to change his shape and assume the body of a man, in virtue of a general tendency of early thought to clothe all abstract spiritual beings in concrete human form. Hence in classical art the sylvan deities are depicted in human shape, their woodland character being denoted by a branch or some equally obvious symbol. But this change of shape does not affect the essential character of the tree-spirit. The powers which he exercised as a tree-soul incorporate in a tree, he still continues to wield as a god of trees. This I shall now attempt to prove in detail. I shall show, first, that trees considered as animate beings are credited with the power of making the rain to fall, the sun to shine, flocks and herds to multiply, and women to bring forth easily; and, second, that the very same powers are attributed to tree-gods conceived as anthropomorphic beings or as actually incarnate in living men.’

Frazer cites examples from across the continets and socities to show this evolution of tree worship from the primitive nature worship to polytheistic form and the tree gods evolved from the form a tree to that of a stylised human male or female form. Frazer writes:

‘Again, the tree-spirit makes the herds to multiply and blesses women with offspring. In Northern India the Emblica officinalis is a sacred tree. On the eleventh of the month Phalgun (February) libations are poured at the foot of the tree, a red or yellow string is bound about the trunk, and prayers are offered to it for the fruitfulness of women, animals, and crops. Again, in Northern India the coconut is esteemed as one of the most sacred fruits, and is called Sriphala, or the fruit of Sri, the goddess of prosperity. It is the symbol of fertility and all through Upper India is kept in shrines and presented by the priests to women who desire to become mothers. In the town of Qua, near Old Calabar, there used to grow a palm-tree which ensured conception to any barren woman who ate a nut from its branches. In Europe the May-tree or May-pole is apparently supposed to possess similar powers over both women and cattle. ........................................................................................

In the Tuhoe tribe of Maoris the power of making women fruitful is ascribed to trees. These trees are associated with the navel-strings of definite mythical ancestors, as indeed the navel-strings of all children used to be hung upon them down to quite recent times. A barren woman had to embrace such a tree with her arms, and she received a male or a female child according as she embraced the east or the west side. The common European custom of placing a green bush on May Day before or on the house of a beloved maiden probably originated in the belief of the fertilising power of the tree-spirit. In some parts of Bavaria such bushes are set up also at the houses of newly-married pairs, and the practice is only omitted if the wife is near her confinement; for in that case they say that the husband has “set up a May-bush for himself.” Among the South Slavonians a barren woman, who desires to have a child, places a new chemise upon a fruitful tree on the eve of St. George’s Day. Next morning before sunrise she examines the garment, and if she finds that some living creature has crept on it, she hopes that her wish will be fulfilled within the year. Then she puts on the chemise, confident that she will be as fruitful as the tree on which the garment has passed the night. Among the Kara-Kirghiz barren women roll themselves on the ground under a solitary apple-tree, in order to obtain offspring. Lastly, the power of granting to women an easy delivery at child-birth is ascribed to trees both in Sweden and Africa. In some districts of Sweden there was formerly a bardträd or guardian-tree (lime, ash, or elm) in the neighbourhood of every farm. No one would pluck a single leaf of the sacred tree, any injury to which was punished by ill-luck or sickness. Pregnant women used to clasp the tree in their arms in order to ensure an easy delivery. In some negro tribes of the Congo region pregnant women make themselves garments out of the bark of a certain sacred tree, because they believe that this tree delivers them from the dangers that attend child-bearing. The story that Leto clasped a palm-tree and an olive-tree or two laurel-trees, when she was about to give birth to the divine twins Apollo and Artemis, perhaps points to a similar Greek belief in the efficacy of certain trees to facilitate delivery.’

From PN Ravindran's forthcoming book :Nandanom- the Garden of Gods.

PN Ravindran's Forthcoming book: Nandanom- The Garden of Gods.
On Tree Worship
Alka Mai gave an introduction to tree worship. Some points that she mentioned:
By way of a beginning let me recite a opening lines from the hymn of the forest by William Cullen Bryant:
‘The groves were God's first temples.
Ere man learned To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave,
And spread the roof above them,
---ere he framed The lofty vault, to gather and roll back
The sound of anthems; in the darkling wood,
Amidst the cool and silence, he knelt down,
And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks
And supplication………’.
“Tree worship and worship of natural forces evolved gradually along with the origin of human social life. In Indian culture plant worship probably had its beginning in the pre-Indus Valley time but as a continuous stream of worship from the pre-vedic period and continues more or loss uninterrupted even today as a vibrant faith in the Indian society. Excavations in Harappa and Mohanjodaro provided evidence of the existence of tree worship during the Indus Valley civilization. Marshall in his classical work on Indus civilization mentions two forms of tree worship during that period. In one form the tree is worshiped and in the other form the tree spirit is worshiped. Pandey in his work on the Indian Rock Art found in the Adamgarh mentions the figure of a ‘Vanadeva’. This figure is shown in an anthropomorphic form, a lotus crown on his head, holding an arrow in one hand and a bud in the other hand, and the body covered with flowers. In one of the seals excavated from Indus Valley, the epiphany of the deity is a tree that resembles the peepal. In another seal Mackay has identified a peepal, and in a clay amulet he found the representation of a neem tree. According to him the worship of Mother Goddess, the goddess of fertility and crops, seems to be central to the religious practices of the time. The Mother Goddess was often represented as rising between two branches of a tree or standing in between the bifurcated branch of a peepal tree. The pre-Vedic worship of trees evolved further and attained new dimensions during the Vedic period and in the subsequent post- Vedic times. The number of sacred trees increased considerably in the Puranic period and subsequent centuries because of the proliferation of the polytheistic and iconoclastic worship. However during the Vedic period soma occupied the prime status in worship than any other tree. In Rig Veda a whole chapter, the ninth Mandala is devoted for extolling the qualities of soma and its worship. In subsequent centuries elaborate rituals were evolved for each sacred ceremony and in every such ceremony plants and plant products played important roles. We read in Puranas such as Garuda purana, Agni purana etc. how different flowers were prescribed for offering to different deities.
The Indian people believed and still believe in astrology and the planetary influence on their lives. Just like gods and goddesses are associated with certain plants; myths and legends were evolved that made the nine planets associate with certain plants; so also the birth stars. All the twenty seven birth stars are associated with some plants and animals.

From PN Ravindran's Nandanom- The garden of Gods ( Forthcoming book).